Michael Gmaj was born in 1980 in Gdansk, Poland, but grew up in Switzerland after 1983. Following his apprenticeship as a structural engineering draughtsman he began working at the Schauspielhaus Graz where he worked, among others, with Henning Mankell and the Teatro Avenida Mozambique. Subsequently, he worked as a freelance stage designer in Graz and Zurich and studied dramaturgy at the Academy for Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. During his studies he assisted at the Volksbühne Berlin and worked with Christoph Schlingensief on the production of “Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir”. In 2009 he was an assistant of the jury for the selection of scholarship recipients for the Akademie Schloss Solitude in the category Performing Arts. Between 2012 and 2013 he was a dramaturge at Theater Konstanz. Furthermore, he worked as a guest dramaturge for multiple theatres such as the Ballhaus OST, Kampnagel in Hamburg and Theater Neumarkt. Micheal Gmaj is the author of plays such as ”Jungs laufen Amok – Mädchen bringen sich um” and “Bond Girls”.
